


too close, too close (how close is close enough?)

by yxrtyu



Series: denial is a river [2]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Again, Boys Kissing, Coming In Pants, Frottage, M/M, Making Out, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Trapped In A Closet, for real this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:08:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yxrtyu/pseuds/yxrtyu
Summary: “Your lack of height is frustrating,” he teases as he takes the phone higher to try and get signal or wifi. He slightly walks forward, which makes the other boy walk as well.“Shut up! Sorry I’m not as blessed as you,” the shorter boy snaps as he turns around. EJ sees in his peripherals Ricky’s eyes widening before he looks away, face as red as a tomato. He tries his best not to smirk.“Aw, you admit that you think I’m blessed.” EJ continues to walk, keeping his eyes trained on the space where the signal bars are supposed to be but have not appeared yet. “How cute.”Ricky and EJ trapped in a storage room. Again.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell
Series: denial is a river [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596217
Comments: 47
Kudos: 233





	too close, too close (how close is close enough?)

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot believe I listened to you guys and made another piece within 24 hours.
> 
> Seriously, thank you. I haven't written this much and published something so fast in so long.
> 
> Title is from Taking Back Sunday's "Make Damn Sure".
> 
> Also, if you're underage, please PLEASE don't read this. Or read at your own risk.

EJ may be a big fat liar for a lot of things, like stealing Nini’s phone and keeping it a secret or saving over Ashlyn’s Pokémon game when they were younger and not admitting to it when she asked him if he did it while bawling her eyes out (she had high level Pokémon as well as 2-3 legendaries in her party), but he is very honest when it comes to his friends and family as well as his sexuality. 

The last thing is mentioned because he really does think Ricky is cute, even if the younger guy gets on his nerves sometimes. Well, actually, that’s a lie (repeat: big fat liar); EJ really has not gotten over the fact that Ricky was trying to steal Nini away when they were together (because... dude, that's seriously fucked up), and the animosity towards him because of that whole drama has never really went away. He has gotten better, though, and their relationship wasn’t anything more than just nods to each other in the hallway and having an okay cooperative relationship for drama club. But he also just likes to mess with him a lot because the way Ricky’s face turns red and how he gets flustered and angry and unable to form sentences is just way too adorable for EJ not to enjoy. 

Then Carlos’s party happened, and since then, EJ has now been thinking that Ricky is actually very attractive, with his messy curls and relaxed and carefree attitude, and he would not mind making out with him again. Maybe even more... but baby steps.

Carlos’s party was over three weeks ago. Which also means that EJ making out intensely with Ricky was also three weeks ago. Which also means EJ has been thinking about Ricky’s curly locks in his hands, his chapped lips against his own, his tongue in his mouth, and the way he just straight handled him towards the end of their session with the choice of words he whispered so harshly into his mouth for a good three long and excruciating weeks. 

In conclusion, EJ really wants Ricky to make good on his promise to “destroy” him. Or the other way around, he has no preference. 

(Also a lie because EJ has never been so turned on in his life since Ricky used his smaller body to pin EJ against Carlos’s closet door.)

Unfortunately, skater boy has been actively avoiding him for reasons that EJ can only assume that Ricky is still reeling over the incident from Carlos’s party and is probably confused and insecure about what it could possibly mean to him. EJ may be an asshole, but he’s not that much of an asshole to force anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do (because, hello, it’s 2019), so as much as he wants to shove his tongue down Ricky’s throat and feel his body against his, he has been keeping his distance.

Has it been easy? Yeah. But is it fun for him? Not at all. 

Though today must be a blessing (or curse in Ricky’s case) in disguise for it was their turn today to clean up the stage and return props to the storage room designated for the drama/theatre club while everyone packed up and went home.

And someone had accidentally locked them in. 

“You can’t be serious,” Ricky says, his agitation seeping into his voice and into his movements. He begins to bang on the door with his fist. “Hello?! We’re in here!”

“I wouldn’t even bother. Everyone had already left for the day, and I’m pretty sure the janitor blasts music in his ears, so there’s no way he could hear us,” EJ stated, tired from today’s activities. 

“No, no no no.” Ricky keeps banging at the door, and EJ can feel himself catching onto Ricky’s contagious irritation. “Big Red!? Miss Jenn!? Hello!? Can someone open this fucking door!? Nini!? Gina!?”

EJ slumps down to the floor and leans against a shelf containing boxes of props used over the years, feeling too drained to help Ricky fruitlessly call out to people who will never hear them since everyone was already out of the building by now. In a last ditch effort, he pats down his pockets only to realize he left his phone in his bag. He groans out loud, making Ricky turn to him with his brows raised in question. 

“My phone’s in my bag in the auditorium. You got yours?” he suggests. 

The other boy’s eyes widens in realization that what EJ said was a fantastic idea (because it was, duh). He fishes his phone out of his pocket and turns on the screen, only to frown. 

“Well?”

“I don’t have service, and the wifi doesn’t reach here.” Ricky starts walking around with his phone up, checking each corner of the crowded storage room to try and get any signal or wifi. He curses under his breath. “Of all the times this has to happen.”

He walks around a little more, reaching here and there to the point where his shirt rides up a little and EJ catches a bit of skin that peeks through. The sight has him licking his lips before rolling his eyes at how hard Ricky was trying, so he decides to stand up to help the younger boy. Help him with an ulterior motive, of course. He’s EJ Caswell, for Christ’s sake; once he wants something, he does his absolute best to get it. 

… Well, absolute best in the nicest way. He’s a changed man. 

He walks up behind Ricky and grabs the phone, making sure to crowd his back. The proximity makes the skateboarder jump and yelp, and EJ can see his ears turning red. 

“Your lack of height is frustrating,” he teases as he takes the phone higher to try and get signal or wifi. He slightly walks forward, which makes the other boy walk as well. 

“Shut up! Sorry I’m not as blessed as you,” the shorter boy snaps as he turns around. EJ sees in his peripherals Ricky’s eyes widening before he looks away, face as red as a tomato. He tries his best not to smirk. 

“Aw, you admit that you think I’m blessed.” EJ continues to walk, keeping his eyes trained on the space where the signal bars are supposed to be but have not appeared yet. “How cute.”

Ricky shoves at him, causing him to stumble backwards, but not enough to knock him over and lose his grip on the phone. EJ looks down at him and puts on his best annoyed face that he learned how to do after years of acting.

“I have your phone, dumbass. If I drop it, it’s your fault.”

The shorter boy scowls at him before folding his arms and looking away, and EJ resumes his task. Now concentrated on the phone, he continues onward until he reaches a corner of the storage room where he gets a little bit of signal. Reaching up with the other hand, he asks, “What’s your code?”

“... 528491.”

The sequence gets him in and he goes to find Ricky’s contacts only to see that everyone has a stupid nickname. He sighs, exasperated. 

“What’s Big Red’s contact name?”

“... pap smear.”

EJ squints his eyes, now actually annoyed. “What the fuck?”

“Just fucking text him and don’t question it.”

He opens the contact and makes to send him a message. “‘Locked in the drama club’s storage room with the most good looking guy ever-’”

Ricky stomps on his foot. 

“Ouch, goddamn, okay. Learn to take a fucking joke. ‘Locked in the drama club’s storage room. Please come.’ And then hella explanation points. And a crying emoji.”

"I don't use emojis."

"Too late. Now what’s Nini’s contact name?"

“... four score and seven years ago.”

“You are so annoying. Why can’t you-”

“I’m not changing my contact list. Fuck off. It’s my phone.”

EJ proceeds to send the same message to Nini. He frowns as both messages turned green, which is a problem because Ricky and the other two had iPhones. Then he sees that they are still sending.

“Well, bad news and bad news,” EJ starts. He looks down and sees that he has Ricky, who is looking everywhere but at him, trapped against the shelf behind him. “They’re sending as texts, and they’re still sending.”

Ricky groans as he lets his head fall back, a dull thud sounding when his head hits the metal shelving. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Unfortunately, no.” EJ locks the phone and puts it on the highest shelf before making sure that the service stays so that the texts will send. He brings his attention to Ricky who has his eyes closed. “So what’s my contact name?”

It must have struck a nerve because Ricky’s eyes snap open in what was possibly fear, and he chuckles nervously. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh? Why not?” EJ asks as he leans in closer, placing his hands on the shelf behind him so that Ricky has nowhere to go. He silently pats himself on the back for getting the two of them to this position. 

The junior’s face turns a brilliant shade of red once again, and then EJ finds himself pushed away, laughing upon seeing Ricky’s discomfort. 

“If you’re not going to tell me, then I’m just going to look up my number on your phone.”

As he goes to reach for the cellular device, Ricky once again pushes him away all the way to the other shelf and pins him there with his hands, the movement knocking the breath out of EJ. He sees the other boy’s angry face, lips curled back to show his gritted teeth. His heart skips a beat, and he feels himself heating up in anticipation. After he takes in a gulp of air, he smirks and leans to get into Ricky’s face again, who does not back away much to his appreciation.

“You’re so cute when you’re mad.”

The flirtatious statement causes Ricky to falter, and EJ feels the tension in his body soften, giving him the opportunity to quickly switch their positions around. Once he has the shorter boy with his back against the shelving, EJ makes sure to nudge his knee between the other boy’s legs. He goes to lean in again, this time getting so close that their lips were a breath away. He watches as Ricky’s eyes flicker towards his lips and back up to look into his own. Now that they can see each other in the light compared to being the darkness in Carlos’s closet, EJ does not miss the way the other boy’s pupils are blown up and the way his tongue darts out to wet his lips.

As much as EJ would like for Ricky to destroy him (in the best way possible i.e. sexually), he knows that he won’t make the first move, at least not right away. So he opts for a slow burn, in which he alights skater boy’s senses on fire in every way possible without kissing him. He places his hands on the younger boy’s waist, lifting his shirt with his thumbs to trace small circles into his skin. The movement has Ricky letting out a soft gasp, which encourages EJ to continue his way up his back with his left hand while his right thumb keeps on with the patterns. As his hand inches upwards, EJ watches Ricky’s expression slowly become diluted with desire. He leans forward closer and closer and closer and closer until their bottom lips touch, which was his cue to move back. Ricky’s head goes to follow his, as if his lips were a magnet and were attracting the curly headed boy’s, but EJ makes sure to keep away so as to keep up this game of almost-but-not-quite teasing. His hand continues its journey up his back to finally rest at his neck where he scratches at the bottom of his hair. The shiver that he feels runs through Ricky’s body is so delicious that he wants, no, needs to see more reactions from the junior, so his hand runs through his soft curls before he lightly pulls his head back, eliciting a louder gasp this time. 

With Ricky’s head tilted back, EJ goes to nuzzle his neck, his lips also barely touching the skin there. He inhales his bodywash, a clean forest scent, which has his own senses up in arrears, because if there’s one way to get to EJ’s heart (or pants), it’s to smell good. He feels Ricky’s hands tense on his back, almost grabbing at his shirt, encouraging him to continue his lips grazing their way up to his earlobe where he nibbles on it a bit before blowing in his ear. The sensation causes Ricky to fist his shirt and grind on his thigh, small whimpers falling out of his mouth. 

EJ suppresses a groan. He so badly wants to go further, but he would rather have Ricky set the pace and boundaries as he is the one who probably is not sure of his own feelings on the whole situation. Like it was said before, he is an asshole, but he’s not that much of an asshole.

Moving away from his face, he takes a look at Ricky: his flushed face and his parted lips as well as the easy access to his neck all make EJ’s stomach flare with heat. But it’s his eyes, so black and full of want and need, that have made his mouth dry out. 

“Ricky…” he says, voice coming out as a rasp. 

As if a switch was turned on at the sound of his name, Ricky’s hands fly up to his hair to grab at it and pull his face closer, their lips smashing together, and EJ lets out a groan into the other’s mouth, finally relieved that they were kissing. 

It’s the same as before; kissing him is nothing but a war, battling each other for dominance with their teeth as weapons. Hands scrambling for purchase, on a shirt, in the other’s hair, down a back, up a chest. Tongues fighting against each other and stroking lips, paving the way for bites to clamp down and pull, to mark territory, to claim a small victory. It is growing heavy and hot, breathy moans and wet sounds of lips smacking filling the air. It’s being so close, yet still so far away, too many layers in between to produce the right amount of friction. 

EJ’s mind is chaos right now, and he feels his skin is on fire as Ricky’s hands make their up his shirt to scratch at his back, the sting of his nails making him hiss. He wants more, more, and more of Ricky, to hear him and feel him and taste him and see him fall apart at his own hands. He breaks away, a line of spit connecting their lips, and he watches as Ricky moves up and down on his thigh, his head tilted back with his eyes closed and mouth gaping wide open in abandon. The scene sends heat to his stomach, and the feel of Ricky on his thigh has his own pants becoming tighter. 

“Fuck, you look so good right now,” he admits gruffly, which gets Ricky to moan wantonly. 

Good god, he’s going to die because of this boy in front of him. 

Ricky leans his head forward and opens his eyes, desperation running rampant in them. “EJ, please, I-”

Even the sound of his name from his mouth is enough to put him into an early grave at this very moment. 

But he needs to stay alive, needs to see Ricky absolutely lose his fucking mind, so he wraps his arm around his waist and fists his hair and helps him along, moving him faster and faster along his thigh. His jeans are so goddamn uncomfortable right now, and he wants to unbutton, to press against, anything to get some relief, but his desire to please Ricky overtakes him. EJ moves to devour the younger boy’s mouth, swallowing his pants and moans, and he can feel that he’s getting close from the way he claws wildly at his back. 

Then he watches Ricky throw his head back and groan obscenely and loudly into the storage space.

EJ barely gets to enjoy the younger boy coming down from his high when the door finally opens. 

Being in sports, one has to think fast on their feet, to come up with solutions if there are no openings, anything to score a point and win the game. And even in his lust-addled brain EJ has the sense to get Ricky off the shelf, turn them around so that his own back was to the door, and turn Ricky around and put his hands to his shoulders. All of this successfully happening before the door was fully opened.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you were trapped in here and-”

Not moving from his position, he turns his head around to see Nini looking at them with her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. 

“Nini! There’s my lovely ex-girlfriend, now my lord and savior!” he exclaims as he moves to her with open arms gesturing grandly, a clever tactic to divert attention. He goes for a hug, but she ducks, so he pulls off a dance spin instead and lands striking a pose to the side with his front leg covering physical evidence of what transpired in the room. She rolls her eyes. 

“Are you two okay?” she asks, voice full of concern. 

“Yeah, yeah. Was just giving skater boy there a massage to relax him. He hates me, you know,” EJ says as he nods towards Ricky’s direction.

“And you hate him… how’d you even pull off giving him a massage?”

He shrugs. “Nothing else better to do.” 

Nini looks at him skeptically before peering around him to see Ricky whose back was still turned towards them. “Ricky, you okay?”

Jumping at the sound of his name, the curly haired boy turned around and strategically hung his arm in front of him, his other hand holding his shoulder. “Yeah, thanks for opening the door for us, Nini.”

Remembering Ricky’s phone, he moves to the corner where he placed the phone on the top shelf to retrieve it while Nini tells both of them that she’ll prop the door open with the chair before announcing her goodbyes to them. He shouts his thanks back to her as he grabs the phone. When he turns back around, he sees that the girl is gone and that Ricky is still standing there with his head down. 

Moving to the front of him, EJ gently presses Ricky’s phone to his chest, prompting the boy to look up. His blissed out face pleases him extremely, and he takes a mental picture to tuck away in the recesses of his mind. 

“Let’s get out of here,” he says, smirk gracing his face, because he’s EJ fucking Caswell. He has an asshole reputation to hold up. 

Ricky takes his phone and fidgets in place, scratching his head and biting his lip. The scene playing out would have been more endearing, but EJ is even more tired and he needs to get home, eat, do homework, smack one out, and then shower. In that order.

“What is it?”

Ricky looks at him and frowns. “I, uh… Hm…” He pauses, closing his mouth. He opens it, then closes it, opens, and closes, looking like a fish out of water. He opens it again.

“Spit it out, Ricky.” 

“You didn’t finish,” he finally blurted out, red creeping up his neck and into his cheeks. 

EJ knew this, obviously, but the fact that Ricky cared enough to say it took him aback. Shaking out of it, he took a step closer to get into Ricky’s face, thoroughly enjoying how the junior almost made a step back but stood his ground to meet his own leveled stare. 

“Aw, so you don’t hate me? How cute.”

With that, EJ got the calculated reaction that he wanted: Ricky sputtering out and getting angry at him. 

“Fuck you, asshole.”

“Maybe you should do that next time,” he says without missing a beat.

EJ cherishes the incredulous and embarrassed look on Ricky’s face before he leaves the storage room, and it isn’t until he’s down the hall that he hears Ricky muffled screaming.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I watch too much anime/read too much manga.
> 
> Also, do high schools have wifi? Do kids on the west coast/in the southwest say "hella"? Please forgive me. I am washed.
> 
> I do have a friend whose contact list does not contain names but rather inside jokes and first impressions. My contact name is "Baby Labia". For what reason? I have no idea.


End file.
